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Trump Reverses Himself and Denies Firing Comey Over Russia Probe

Posted on Friday, June 01, 2018 by Willis Stokes

ImageRod J. Rosenstein the deputy attorney general oversees the special counsel’s

President Donald Trump claimed in a tweet Thursday morning that he did not fire former FBI director James Comey over the Russian Federation investigation, despite having toldNBC's Lester Holt one year ago that the abrupt dismissal stemmed from exactly that. "The Corrupt Mainstream Media loves to keep pushing that narrative, but they know it is not true!" After the firing, the White House released a letter from Rosenstein detailing what he viewed was Comey's mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email case, which the deputy attorney general believes was unfair to the former secretary of state.

To Mr. McCabe, that seemed like possible evidence that Mr. Comey's firing was actually related to the F.B.I.'s investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russian Federation, and that Mr. Rosenstein helped provide a cover story by writing about the Clinton investigation.

A memo written by dismissed former Federal Bureau of Investigation deputy director Andrew McCabe reportedly suggests he was concerned that Rosenstein gave Trump an excuse for dismissing Comey in May 2017.

The Times reported, citing several people familiar with the discussion, that in the document McCabe described a conversation at the Justice Department with Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein after Comey was abruptly fired. "He was insane, a real nut job", Mr. Trumpsaid, according to the document, which was read to The New York Times by an American official. The Justice Department appointed Mueller after Comey's termination and the revelation that Trump had asked Comey to end the federal investigation into his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. But I said to myself I might even lengthen out the investigation. The firing is now under investigation by Mueller for possible obstruction of justice.

"I've talked with Director Mueller about this", Rosenstein said in an interview with The Associated Press previous year.

"We think it is no coincidence that these leaks follow within 24 hours of media stories - based on other leaks whose source is unknown to us - about memos written by Mr. McCabe that suggest potential criminal conduct by the President", Bromwich said. Hillary Clinton got that. Maybe I'll expand that - you know, I'll lengthen the time because it should be over with.

"He's going to make the appropriate decisions, and if anything that I did winds up being relevant to his investigation then, as Director Mueller and I discussed, if there's a need from me to recuse, I will", he added.